I am an experienced policymaker, I have the commitment and expertise to design effective strategies to help build a Berkeley that isn’t just surviving but thriving.

I know from experience that with the commitment of Berkeley residents and our city, this is not out of reach. We deserve a city that is vibrant, equitable, and sustainable.

Who is Moni?

I have an interest in studying systems and infrastructures and how they support communities and our living environment. Since 1997, I have been working on policymaking in one way or another, whether on economic policy, poverty alleviation, clean energy policy, or utility regulation. I have led policy efforts to shape $3 billion dollars of the State’s energy efficiency portfolios on behalf of utility customers.

Over the past five years, I have been an investigator in cases of utilities committing fraud, or violating State rules, in the provision of water, telecommunications and energy services. Most recently, I helped discover roughly $10 million in fraudulent appropriation of low income subsidies by a phone company. I have advised State Legislative offices and Commissioners on our State’s clean energy policy, worked with a wide range of stakeholders and contractors and led public participation meetings.

And while I am an experienced policymaker with over two decades of experience, I have also been a K-12 educator in neighboring Oakland. Early in my career, I was a journalist in Bangladesh. Later, I studied indigenous ecological knowledge while getting my Masters in Environmental Management at Yale University, focusing on climate policy.

I understand perseverance and value generational experience. My parents came from India and faced many hardships. As a young child, my father was a refugee during the country's partition. After leaving his home to cross the new border, he was so poor that he sometimes missed school because he only owned one shirt. My mother grew up in a family of ten children in a rural village. She was almost denied an education because her local school did not accept girls until the very year, she was ready to attend, showing the power of timing and perseverance.

I am your neighbor in West Berkeley, a single mother with a child in the Berkeley Unified School District. I am an investigator at the California Public Utilities Commission. And like many in Berkeley, I am here because of the sacrifices made by previous generations.

I am confident that I have the kind of expertise and skill to design, refine, and collectively shape smart initiatives that are targeted towards addressing a well-defined challenge or goal; initiatives that work and are cost-effective. Because of my international experience, my work in journalism, and my study of indigenous systems, I know how to think outside the box in ways that get us out of this cycle of increasing inequity and societal dysfunction.

Together, we can shape a city that is not just barely surviving, but thriving - for all of us! received.

My Moto

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